Is Tata Consultancy Services holding out on the new British Airways senior management over a major IT problem?

IS 'TCS/BA SWIFT MRO' UTILISING TCS' PROPRIETY SOLUTION ACCELERATORS AT THE ROOT OF THE BRITISH AIRWAYS WORLDWIDE COMPUTER MELTDOWN?

 Hows my flight doing? This is what greets you on the BA website

at 08:29am Bank Holiday Monday....

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In September 2010, British Airways outsourced most of its IT and Computing to the Indian firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

British Airways' Spanish boss Alex Cruz has been blamed for causing the computer meltdown that saw thousands of passengers stranded on Saturday after outsourcing hundreds of IT job to India.

Mr Cruz, who founded - just a few years ago the low-cost carrier Clickair and headed budget airline Vueling before being appointed British Airways chief last year, was accused of replacing highly-skilled British IT professionals with low-cost overseas workers and importing Indian IT consultants on Tier 2 visas to the UK to work on BA software and systems.

Julian Bray told Mail Online: 'I would have expected someone with major international airline experience to be put in charge, rather than someone who has been in charge of two smaller airlines, with an indifferent financial record.

'I don't feel he has the depth of knowledge required to inject radical competitive new thinking into the up-market British Airways brand.

'Cruz is known as being an outsourcer and cost-cutter, stripping out frills and cutting head count, and therefore not particularly suited to an upmarket, people-intensive, luxury-price brand.'

Mr Bray added that it is 'inconceivable' that a single power outage could have caused the meltdown, adding that it is 'ridiculous' that BA didn't have an appropriate backup system in place.

Alex Cruz is a Spanish businessman who was born in Bilbao before being schooled in America.

It was there that he landed his first job, with American Airlines, spending five years at Sabre, its travel technology arm, and another five in the core business. He then moved to the world of airline consultancy, spending some time at Accenture.

In 2006 he founded his own budget airline, Clickair, which operated out of Barcelona. Three years later it merged with competitor Vueling, with Mr Cruz becoming the group's new CEO.

After Vueling was bought by International Airline Group in 2013, Mr Cruz joined the IAG Management Committee.

Three years later he was named the new boss of British Airways, marking a considerable step-up from the smaller brands he managed in the past. 

Mick Rix, national officer at union GMB, also warned that British professionals on an average of £50,000 per year were being replaced by Indian workers allegedly being paid just £10,000.

One new theory rapidly gaining ground is that if something catastrophic has happened within TCS relating to the British Airways worldwide computer system, it could possibly be that Tata has not fully passed on all their proprietary information to their client British Airways, and for that reason BA are not offering their senior people for media interview, as they simply do not know what is happening.  

This theory is strengthened by the simple fact that none of the other IAG (BA's owners) computing systems have been affected and their services are operating normally.

This is what Tata and British Airways said in a formal media release at the time (we have reproduced it in full): 

LONDON, Sept. 29 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- In an industry which does not have a 'one size fits all' solution for its Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) functions, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) a leading IT services, business solutions and outsourcing organisation, has joined with British Airways to launch the industry's most cutting edge integrated IT solution, branded as " SWIFT MRO ."

This partnership brings to the market a tried and tested solution that addresses key MRO industry requirements, including compliance control, inventory management and maintenance operations.

The solution, based on the latest SAP platform, leverages British Airways' best practices with a focus on increasing productivity by minimising manual intervention and increasing process automation - all through a simplified Graphical User Interface (GUI). The solution focuses on eliminating non-value added activities and waste throughout MRO operations.  

Garry Copeland, British Airways' director of Engineering, said, "Having successfully implemented an engineering-wide system based on SAP, we have identified a number of opportunities to enhance the solution and make it significantly easier to implement and use.  Working with TCS, we have created a team that combines MRO industry experience with technology expertise to continually improve the effectiveness of our system, and believe we can offer this outstanding product to the market."

TCS and British Airways are bringing this to the MRO industry so that other organisations can benefit from an end-to-end solution, which is scalable to support both the current and future needs of the industry. The pre-configured solution also provides significant implementation costs savings compared to competing solutions, owing to the use of TCS' propriety solution accelerators.

"Evolving technologies and tougher regulations in the MRO industry mean that engineering and maintenance are becoming increasingly challenging. As proven through the advantages reaped by British Airways, SWIFT MRO will be a valuable tool for all organizations looking to improve functional performance in the MRO area while remaining efficient. Our continued collaboration will deliver continuous improvement to help us keep developing and enhancing the SWIFT MRO solution even further," said S. Sukanya , Head of Travel, Transportation and Hospitality, TCS.

About Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing organization that delivers real results to global businesses, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled services delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model, recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development.

A part of the Tata Group, India's largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 160,000 of the world's best trained IT consultants in 42 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of over US $6.3 billion for fiscal year ended March 31, 2010 and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com.

About British Airways Engineering

British Airways Engineering has a global reputation for engineering excellence and its technical and logistics expertise supports airline operations on every continent, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. BA Engineering's core capabilities are centred on Boeing 737, 747, 757, 767 and 777 aircraft, plus the Airbus A320 family aircraft.   The company has also invested in three world class operations based in South Wales that are dedicated to delivering heavy maintenance, avionics and interiors. The extensive maintenance network extends overseas with 'line maintenance' stations established at airports around the globe. Again, these support British Airways and its subsidiaries together with a number of customer airlines.

BA Engineering provides full support for British Airways fleet and a number of other airlines, with around 4,000 staff at more than 100 locations around the world. Fully equipped hangar facilities at the main maintenance bases at Heathrow, Gatwick and Glasgow airports are supported by workshops, technical and design services, and a comprehensive logistics network.

The company has also invested in three world class operations based in South Wales that are dedicated to delivering heavy maintenance, avionics and interiors. The extensive maintenance network extends overseas with 'line maintenance' stations established at airports around the globe. Again, these support British Airways and its subsidiaries together with a number of customer airlines.

SOURCE Tata Consultancy Services

JULIAN BRAY +44(0)1733 345581, Journalist & Broadcaster, Aviation Security & Airline Operations Analyst/expert, www.freelancedirectory.org?name=Julian.Bray.aviation.comment Travel / Maritime & Cruise Industry, NUJ, EQUITY, LIVE ISDN LINK, Broadcast ISDN COOBE ++44 (0)1733 345020 e&oe Old faithful NOKIA: 07944 217476 www.aviationcomment.com Julian Bray told Mail Online: